Author'sNote

I figure that an upload pattern can't hurt, so I'll be doing Monday-Wednesday-Friday for a while here! The original starting point for the second time period wasn't until after chapter 10 but I think I'll move it up soon, I'm just getting the story settled first! Anyway, please enjoy!

Kaeya

Kaeya predicted he would trip well before he did. After all, he had watched the server nearly avoid doing so twice now and he wasn't even carrying anything then. As the man made his way between the tables he was repeatedly forced to dodge back and forth between the citizens celebrating the holiday. It was the first day of le Mois du vent, and the month of wind was such a lovely time of year.

Still, despite the justification for the rowdiness, it was a bit much for the young waiter to handle. When he was almost to their table, his foot caught the fallen tankard of a rather intoxicated woman, and he violently tripped forwards and stumbled.

Impressively, he maintained his footing along with most of the platter. But unfortunately, one tankard slipped cleanly off of it and crashed to the ground beside Kaeya. He tossed his focus into the air, letting the coin spin before catching it between two of the fingers of his other hand. As he grasped it again it let off a subtle reverberation and he tapped his foot, freezing the puddle of cider rock-solid before it could even spread to his boots.

"Watch your step there," Kaeya softly cautioned. He picked the crystallized slab off of the wood and, after grabbing the tankard as well, broke the solidified drink into it.

He handed it back to the server with a grin. He looked thoroughly embarrassed and was staring right back at Kaeya. Kaeya wasn't sure whether it was his magic or his leggings and muscled form that brought the attention, but either way he didn't mind.

As the server stammered an apology and a thank you, Kaeya flashed a grin that looked warm and open. Of course, in reality, it was as warm as his magic and as open as his secretive brother, but he lied often enough that it came naturally. To someone else, it would have been wrong, but he had acted less morally than this in the past just to bask in the attention of a cute stranger.

Jean interrupted his brief moment of pleasure by soothing the woman's sorries with a genuine smile. "Don't worry about it! It looks like the festivities get hard to manage."

"They do, thank you for understanding. I'll get you another, I'm so sorry," the waiter stammered, obviously relieved.

His gaze flickered back to Kaeya before he turned to leave.

"Oh, you know what," Kaeya called out, pausing to appreciate his gaze back on him once more, "if you're headed back regardless I would love to order a Death After Noon."

"Of course!"

The waiter nodded and carefully retreated to the bar.

"Kaeya, aren't you on duty?" Jean asked, frowning across the table at her student.

"Well, sure, but I work for the church, and what higher responsibility do we have as followers of the old archons than to cherish their gifts? The wine of Mondstadt was one of Barbatos' finest creations and on this holy day it's only right to appreciate such a contribution," he reasoned, laughing and waving aside the caution.

He didn't care much for religion but the church paid the knights of Mondstat well, and any excuse to celebrate was one he would take.

Jean sighed and took her tankard of cider off of the platter. Both the headmaster and Kaeya's fellow student, Beidou, were dressed in official Dragonspine Academy uniforms. They looked quite out of place amidst the loose, flowy, and colorful outfits that the rest of the city had taken to. Furthermore, summer had started, so it was all the more unnecessary in Kaeya's eyes. He had left his uniforms in the dorm room and hoped that he wouldn't have to see them again for months. They were far too modest for his taste.

The fourth seat at the table was occupied by his brother, Diluc. While Kaeya had happily handed over the legal responsibilities of the Winery to that asshole, he was responsible for all the taverns in Mondstat and Liyue. Both brothers relied heavily on their hired managers during the school year, but as it was summer they were handling things more directly.

That position is what had brought them there, as their headmaster had been explaining. Jean cleared her throat and Kaeya started paying attention again.

"Seeing as they are in a better condition we were planning to take them back to the academy," she lowered her voice now, conscious of the many patrons around them, "if there are Snezhnayans hunting them they could use the protection and the experience. Besides, we need to figure out what they know."

"But the council isn't at all using them for that last part, of course, headmaster?" Diluc asked cynically.

Kaeya struggled not to groan. The skepticism of his brother, combined with his sheer audacity, could be troublesome. He still thought the teachers should give him extra credit for not strangling their captain every time Diluc opened his mouth.

Jean hid her reaction as well as Kaeya had, and responded to her former student with expert diplomacy, "They are children and victims of attempted murder, and as such will be treated as nothing else."

That wasn't a real answer, but Diluc must have been in a rare good mood because he simply let the heated moment pass.

Beidou cracked her knuckles, exhaling powerfully as she stretched over the back of her chair, and placed her booted feet up onto the railing beside their table. It seemed to bother the poised and dignified headmaster, but Kaeya's oh-so-irreverent peer didn't even adjust her stance when the waitress returned.

"Here you are, please enjoy," she said warmly. She was speaking to the whole table as she placed down Kaeya's drink and replaced the fourth cider but her eyes stayed on Kaeya's.

As Kaeya turned back from watching her leave he noticed, over the buildings on the opposite side of the square, two golden figures climbing out into the sunlight. Well, one was climbing, the other was already sitting. More notably, they were climbing out of his tavern. They both stayed there, perched high on the sloping roof. Their hair was caught and toyed with by the wind and they almost seemed to be lounging. They looked relaxed.

He opened his mouth to announce what he'd noticed but thought better of it. After all, he wouldn't get to see his idiotic brother squabble with his boss if he interrupted the conversation now. And more importantly, he wouldn't get to finish his drink.

As Kaeya raised his glass to his lips the discussion broke out once more.

"I'm only concerned that the church," Diluc physically grimaced at the last word, "will confuse their interests. After all, with our religious system so interwoven with our military, it's almost inevitable that the integrity of both will fail. It's simply a matter of time, and war is not when that tipping point should come about."

Beidou spoke up, "Those are fighting words, wine boy. And this isn't the place for that or the point of the conversation. Calm down."

Diluc sighed and sat back in his chair, "I'm sorry, but this doesn't sit right with me. I don't trust the council."

"Well, it's alright. I don't either. My main goal is to protect the siblings, but the council's priorities don't line up with my own. I had to play to the useful aspects of taking them in in order to get it approved," Jean admitted.

"That said, I am in a position to ensure their safety and I take on the full responsibility of that task," she added, with something between confidence and resolution in her voice.

"It helps that we lied in the debrief to make them seem less dangerous than they might be," Beidou casually noted.

Jean pinched the bridge of her nose as if staving off a migraine and slowly turned to Beidou.

"I thought that we weren't mentioning that to anybody?" she slowly whispered.

Beidou yawned and started stretching out her shoulders. "I mean Diluc knows, his squad was part of it too. Unless Kaeya is an issue, who cares?"

"Wait, how can you ensure that none of the students will let that slip? And what exactly are we lying about…?" Kaeya inquired, placing his glass back on the table.

There was a bit too much dandelion wine in the mixture for his taste, and he was rather unsatisfied. He quickly checked the root and confirmed that the golden figures hadn't moved. He would just give in another minute, even though the wine wasn't worth the intoxication he wanted to hear his question answered.

"Beidou handled the official report and she imparted upon the others that they had to maintain the secret. Most of the first years were lead to believe that their captain was simply telling them what was supposed to be shared. It was the first major mission for them. I checked the reports and they didn't betray it. And as a last resort they think they lied to me, not the council. So if they choose to report it they would do so to me and I can address it at that point." Jean explained.

"Yeah, also Xiao threatened to kill them so nobody will ever speak of it," Beidou mumbled, her voice echoing out of her tankard.

"Ms. Zhou! Is that true?" Jean cried, whirling to face the third year, well the fourth year now, Kaeya mentally amended. They had just graduated two days previously.

"Kidding," Beidou lied.

"Is this all really necessary, I mean, what's the difference?" Diluc interrupted, waving a hand in the air.

"The military council put them into my jurisdiction, and otherwise they might have imprisoned and interrogated them. They've done harsher things when they thought it could end the war," Jean said solemnly.

Kaeya finished his drink and set the glass on the table.

"I expect they'll be moved soon then, right?" he asked, to no one in particular.

"I mean once they wake, we'll have a conversation," Jean answered, "But I do think that should happen soon. That's at least the report from Ms. Hu."

"Very soon, in fact,"

"How do you know?" Diluc frowned, looking over at Kaeya.

Kaeya merely looked pointedly upwards, and as his three companions followed his gaze to the inn roof the golden figures jumped to their feet, and in seconds they were off of it and onto the street, blocked from view.

"Quick, to me" Jean ordered, leaping up from her seat and streaking towards the stairs.

Jean

As they burst into the plaza citizens hurried to get out of their way, pressing to the edge of the market. There were murmurs of confusion, but the typical noise had died down. Jean lowered her voice as her three companions fell in around her, so as to not alarm the onlookers.

"They could be dangerous, or scared. We don't know which. Try to get them to stop, and don't engage with violence unless they attack. Mr. Ragnvindr, Captain Ragnvindr, go to the eastern gates so they don't leave the city. I'll try to find them while they're stuck between those points. Ms. Zhou, get rid of the fog. We need to see what we're doing," she quickly ordered.

As Jean turned and leaped off the ground, she tightened her grip on the fang in her hand. She exhaled, and that breath became a surging updraft, pushing her through the air over the pottery shop and to the roof of the inn where she firmly landed.

There was a sound resembling that of something fibrous folding in on itself, and Jean quickly focused on the source. Kaeya had called a flock of constructs to him, and now there were two dozen birds made of ice gliding across the ground around him. Diluc took off as well, the shadows of the buildings to either side of him stretching across the street to merge with his own.

Jean looked down at the alleyway and quickly spotted the children. They were wearing the uniforms Jean had left out, which made them easier to spot. It was a relief to locate them, but it was hardly a resolution. They were crossing the street that Kaeya was about to turn onto, and Jean watched them dart into an alleyway, out of sight, just before he got around the corner.

Jean took a deep breath and began to run across the roof slowly pulling anemo energy into her lungs. Her step quicked and she felt the wind gather around her as everything blurred slightly. Sounds distorted and whipped away from her ears, and she burst forwards at a ridiculous speed.

She was crouching, before she comprehended it, on the street. She had dove maybe 60 feet but it still ripped the air from her body. By the winds, she was out of practice. As she scrambled for air, Kaeya came around the corner

"You alright headmistress?" he called, slowing his pace.

"Yes, perfectly. They crossed to Dock's Gate street. Meet them halfway down, by the barracks. There aren't any alleys on the other side there. I'll be at the end, just in case. Hurry," Jean panted.

Kaeya had already taken off. Jean pushed up onto her feet and mustered a second leap. The spell was taken from a study of Ancient Mondstadt, it was one of the techniques of the four winds, Flight of the Eastern Dragon. She had used three of the four in succession, having employed the lion's run and the falcon's dive moments before. The final spell was the Northern Wolve's dodge, and while it was the most useful it wasn't of much benefit in this scenario.

Like she had with the inn, Jean cleanly stepped up onto the third-story roof of the building and took off running. She was now in between the street the siblings had left and the one they would connect to, and they weren't far ahead of her. She could see Kaeya as well, and to her relief he was ahead of them, and widening the gap.

Jean leaped from one building to the next and began to slowly muster her energy, spying a long, flat-roofed building ahead of her. If she wanted to pull ahead, this was that chance.

After jumping down onto it she called the lion's magic to herself once more and snapped almost 50 feet ahead of her onto the next building. She swore to herself, she had overshot, and while she hadn't emerged over an alleyway, it had been close enough to make her nervous. She took off running again, as Kaeya crossed into the path of the siblings below.

She couldn't make out his words but he called something and his birds fanned out over the street. Neither of the siblings slowed their pace whatsoever, and Jean began to worry. Kaeya raised his voice and Jean thought she heard him yell stop, and with a drop of his coin from one hand down to the other below, the birds halted their animated flight and crashed to the ground.

The sound they made was clear and striking enough for Jean to catch as she slowed to a stop maybe 40 feet past her student's position. Ice smashed on the ground and skated across cobblestone, bouncing and scratching on the street. As the bodies splayed across the path, they seemed to melt into puddles while still retaining their solid form, and a swath of slippery ice had instantly formed across the entire 30 feet of the road, and it stretched for maybe 10 feet in width.

Instead of slowing, the pair simply dove, and much to Kaeya's evident dismay, slid across the ice.

As they leaped upwards and bolted away from the young man, Jean pressed both hands to the fang in her grip. With a tinge of regret, she reached out to the warm and soft flow of the summer breezes moving past her and called them to her will. A circle of clustered anemo particles surged outward and formed a ring around the still-running duo. Even as they both dodged for the outside, Jean let out the air in her body and the circle of wind detonated.